VALIE EXPORT

von 20.08.1997 bis 20.08.1997
Ausstellungsübersicht, VALIE EXPORT
"TWITOPON II", 1989

Digital Photograph
 
Following her much noted retrospective in spring 1997 in the Vienna Museum of Modern Art 20er Haus, VALIE EXPORT is exhibiting excerpts of her photographic work over the past 25 years in the Fotohof. The bulk of her conceptual photo-works have consciously been set aside for a further (group) exhibit next year. The photographic documentations of various artistic actions have also been saved for a further presentation. The substantive focus of the current exhibit is the body as a medium for portraying social conditions and power structures. The exhibit spans her early body configurations - some of which are being exhibited for the first time - to her recent computer works. Export's „body configurations" from the early seventies show the human figure fitted into urban or architectural constellations. In these configurations the body exemplifies an object which is at the mercy of existing architectural conditions, which in a broader sense are to be interpreted as social conditions.

The more recent computer works are formally completely diverse. The process of digital photography which uses the montage of existing and self-produced photographs to create a new photograph stands in contrast to the urban spatial situations captured photographically. In the work „City" architectural elements such as stairs and facades are folded into a human (female) face. The thesis of this exhibit is to show that the body-art photography of the seventies and the computer photos of the late eighties transport substantively comparable themes/issues/messages using differing means of expression.

A new installation from 1997 which incorporates two drawings and a photograph from 1973 is also based on existential (body) experiences.

In cooperation with the International Summer Academy for Fine Arts in Salzburg.